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Note! I have coallated the thread's collected links into this one post: April 15/09
Freeware Graphics Programs:
Gimp 2.6: www.gimp.org
Inkscape: www.inkscape.org
OpenOffice Draw: http://www.openoffice.org/
Paint.net: http://www.getpaint.net/
Pixen (Mac): http://opensword.org/Pixen/
Blender: http://www.blender.org/
SketchUp: http://sketchup.google.com/download/gsu.html
Aviary: http://aviary.com/faq
Artweaver: http://www.artweaver.de/
Sculptris: http://www.sculptris.com/
Please post other links particularly free clipart and fonts that designers can use along with ANY other helpful graphics tools.
My thanks for the links above from the helpful replies in my 'Freeware graphics programs' thread.
Fonts:
http://www.acidfonts.com Is another great place to check for fonts
http://neatfonts.com Great for free fonts
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/396013 Font ID
http://www.dafont.com Is a free font site. You need to sift through these b/c some of them are just bad type, but there is a lot
PDF Tools:
PDF Creator
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ Allows you to turn any output into a PDF simply by "printing" it. Essentially, any program that prints can produce a PDF so it's a pretty universal means to do it. Also its very small system-wise and file-size so I strongly suggest this over individual add-on methods.
SomePDF
http://download.cnet.com/Some-PDF-Image-Extract/3000-2079_4-... Allows you to convert any PDF file into an image file - great if you want to use something in a PDF somewhere else.
HTML to PDF Website
http://html-pdf-converter.com/ Simply put a URL link into the provided space and it generates a PDF file of the website - Simple.
Miscellaneous:
To create cards for prototypes (or even final products, if you want to spend some time designing new templates) that look zillion times better than blank cards with titles written in 'Comic Sans' font: http://magicseteditor.sourceforge.net/
Resizing program: http://rsizr.com/about/about/
Turn bitmaps to vector: http://vectormagic.com/
Resizing program: Easy Thumbnails - http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/
Image viewer (also does some graphics operations, and a very cool batch file conversion): http://www.irfanview.com/
Tons of free clipart: http://www.openclipart.org/
A quick screenshotter and sharing service: http://skitch.com/ - Mac only
OpenOffice ( http://www.openoffice.org) is also a free, easy way to make PDFs
http://www.povray.org/download/ Which is a free ray-tracer
This tool only does two things, it resizes an image and splits it into segments. http://cid-4425409b25896345.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Soft...
If you want to generate loverly landscapes you cant really do it easier than with Terragen: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
It allows you to see your work as someone who has red/green colorblindness, or even blue/yellow (a more limiting form): http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php
There is also a free color-blind check effect for Inkscape: http://kaioa.com/node/91
To make animated gifs: http://download.cnet.com/Beneton-Movie-GIF/3000-2186_4-10566...
Here's a link to the Clipart thread. Lots of great stuff there:
http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/thread/390865
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Robin Goodall
United Kingdom
Cambridge
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Resizing program: Easy Thumbnails - http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/
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The Seal of Approval
Austria
Vienna
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Image viewer (also does some graphics operations, and a very cool batch file conversion): http://www.irfanview.com/
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Ryan Diel
United States
Missouri
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www.dafont.com is a free font site. You need to sift through these b/c some of them are just bad type, but there is a lot.
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Nathan Trimmer
United States
West Jefferson
Ohio
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www.acidfonts.com is another great place to check for fonts.
-Nate
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Martin Pettersson
Sweden
Uppsala
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PROTEIN. WATER. LIQUOR.
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Tons of free clipart: http://www.openclipart.org/
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Scott Alden
United States
Dallas
Texas
Aldie's Full of Love!
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A quick screenshotter and sharing service.
http://skitch.com/ - Mac only
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Some other Drew
United States
Rockford
Illinois
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I'm not saying that you're not entitled to your opinion. I'm just saying that you're wrong.
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Matthew Eklund
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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Great stuff guys.
Thumbsies all around...
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Chevee Dodd
United States
Fairmont
West Virginia
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I've been playing with SketchUp lately for 3D stuff:
http://sketchup.google.com/download/gsu.html
And I've been using Blender for years:
http://www.blender.org/
Chevee
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Some other Drew
United States
Rockford
Illinois
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I'm not saying that you're not entitled to your opinion. I'm just saying that you're wrong.
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I regret that I have but one thumb to give for this thread.
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United States
Ithaca
New York
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OpenOffice ( http://www.openoffice.org) is also a free, easy way to make PDFs. You can create a document in Word (or their Word equivalent) then open it with OpenOffice, and under File choose "Convert to PDF". No need to pay for the full Adobe Acrobat.
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I'd like to suggest you could include POV-Ray which is a free ray-tracer. Perhaps not good for counter work, but for cover work or boards where you need a big high quality image.
The great thing about this softare is that you produce images by writing text! This works for me because I'm no good at manipulating the 3D meshes that most other 3D software use.
Here's a sample from my etchings , a couple more in my gallery.
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Here's a tool I knocked up help me print out board images. This tool only does two things, it resizes an image and splits it into segments. So if you want to split a huge image into 4/8/12/32/any-number of parts this is the tool for you.
http://cid-4425409b25896345.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Soft...
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If you want to generate loverly landscapes you cant really do it easier than with Terragen
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
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Luscious Dick Toronto
Greenland
Federal Way
Washington
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Consider Colorblindness!
Every so often here on the Geek I see someone mention their colorblindness and how it affects gameplay.
So for those designers who might consider it, there is a free filter you can use in Photoshop:
http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php
It allows you to see your work as someone who has red/green colorblindness, or even blue/yellow (a more limiting form).
Coloretto uses additional background textures to get past any limitations of color reliance.
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Pelle Nilsson
Sweden
Linköping
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GIMP includes a few different Color Deficient Vision display filters. They're in the View menu -> Display Filters.
There is also a free color-blind check effect for Inkscape: http://kaioa.com/node/91
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Some other Drew
United States
Rockford
Illinois
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I'm not saying that you're not entitled to your opinion. I'm just saying that you're wrong.
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I thought I found this on this thread, but looking through it, I guess I didn't. So, let me submit: Beneton Movie Gif. This is the tool I ust to make animated gifs. You just draw each frame, put them in order, and set the delay time. A flip-book on steroids! There are also a lot of stock effects you can add from the program, itself. I haven't used it all, yet, but it's keeping me entertained so far!
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Mark Manning
United Kingdom
Greenhithe
Kent
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PDF Tools
PDF Creator
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ Allows you to turn any output into a PDF simply by "printing" it. Essentially, any program that prints can produce a PDF so it's a pretty universal means to do it. Also its very small system-wise and file-size so I strongly suggest this over individual add-on methods.
SomePDF
http://download.cnet.com/Some-PDF-Image-Extract/3000-2079_4-... Allows you to convert any PDF file into an image file - great if you want to use something in a PDF somewhere else.
HTML to PDF Website
http://html-pdf-converter.com/ Simply put a URL link into the provided space and it generates a PDF file of the website - Simple.
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Brad H.
United States
Crowley
Texas
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Pixen
http://opensword.org/Pixen/
Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. Made for pixel pushers but it's great for artists of all arenas: Pixen is like a very powerful MSPaint or a simpler, more agile Photoshop.
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Here's a link to the Clipart thread. Lots of great stuff there:
http://www.boardgamegeeks.com/thread/390865
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Miguel Sanhueza
England
Brighton
East Sussex
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http://neatfonts.com/ is great for free fonts, and you can preview your own text in whatever font you like which is especially good if you're searching for just the right 'look' for a specific logo or slogan...
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Some other Drew
United States
Rockford
Illinois
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I'm not saying that you're not entitled to your opinion. I'm just saying that you're wrong.
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And I'll keep bumping it 'til it gets pinned 
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Señor Vanilla
Australia
Melbourne
Victoria
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drewdane wrote: And I'll keep bumping it 'til it gets pinned :D
A geek messageg to admin Octavian worked for me.
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Posted Tue Oct 7, 2008 7:05 am
